1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an imaging system, and more specifically to an apparatus for transferring a toner image from an endless intermediate medium to a receiving material.
2. Discussion of Related Art
An apparatus for transferring toner images is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,519, wherein there is described an apparatus in which the endless intermediate medium is trained solely around two rollers situated at fixed distances from one another, the image-forming station being formed by one of the taut parts of the medium between the two rollers and the image-transfer station being formed by the other taut part of the intermediate medium, between the two rollers. For toner image transfer to a stationary strip of receiving material at the image-transfer station, the entire endless intermediate medium must be stopped for the period during which the toner image transfer takes place. During this period of stoppage of the intermediate medium, a latent image is formed or placed on the intermediate medium at the image-forming station. Between two successive periods during which toner image transfer takes place, that part of the intermediate medium on which the latent image has been formed moves from the image-forming station to the image-transfer station, during which movement the latent image is developed with toner by means of a developing roller disposed next to the intermediate medium. Since development necessarily takes place at a relatively slow speed, the number of images that can be printed per unit of time with this known apparatus is limited.